Matt Cardona wants one more shot.
In February 2022, Matt Cardona defeated Trevor Murdoch to win NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship. Four months later, Cardona was slated to defend his title Nick Aldis at NWA Alwayz Ready, a pay-per-view event named in his honor. Unfortunately, this never title match never materialized as a torn bicep forced Cardona to vacate the NWA Worlds Heavyweight title.
During a recent interview with the Battleground Podcast, Cardona expressed his interest in reclaiming the title, which is currently held by EC3.
“EC3, we’ve had our differences, but he is busting his ass as champion,” Cardona said. “He’s doing whatever he can. I see him going all these places, wrestling people I’ve never heard of, giving people opportunities and also wrestling people of course who could very well beat him for the title. He’s still the champion. He beat me in that death match. He beat the Death Match King in a Death Match, so kudos to him.”
“I would definitely love to sink my teeth into that title one more time, to bring that title all over the world one more time,” Cardona continued. “When I was the champion, I brought it places. I brought it on my goddamn honeymoon. That’s how proud I was to be the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion. To give that title up due to injury, it sucked. I can b*tch and moan all day about how I never truly lost it, but EC3, the current champion, did beat me. But I wasn’t the champion when he beat me. So I would like to have one last match with EC3 just to see who is the better man.”
As Cardona mentioned, he received an opportunity to regain the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship in death match against EC3 at the NWA Paranoia event in January 2024. Despite being “The Death Match King,” Cardona’s efforts ultimately fell short in the contest, as EC3 emerged victorious. That title match also marks Cardona’s most recent appearance for the National Wrestling Alliance to date.
WrestleZone recently spoke with former NWA World Tag Team Champion Aron Stevens. During the conversation, Stevens was asked about the NWA putting more emphasis on its streaming deal with The CW and moving away from a pay-per-view format.
Stevens said the shift doesn’t affect him in the ring from a presentation standpoint. He is the same wrestler he has always been, and he does everything he can to make the fans happy.
“I am the same person at a television studio, or an arena in this case. Like that I am in Madison Square Garden. Every time I go through the curtain people get everything I have. Whether I’m wrestling, even if I’m mad and I don’t want to be there or whatever. When I go through that curtain, there is no ifs ands or buts. The fans and the people I work for, I am going to give every single thing as a performer.
“I’m going to use every bit of knowledge I have. Channel every bit of talent I have to ensure the fans get their money’s worth and remember me. And that’s the all of the talent’s attitude. Oh yeah, it’s just a TV match or a pay-per-view, and look, pay-per-view matches, yeah there’s a few more steel chairs, but that doesn’t mean you don’t put everything you have into everything you are doing. And that’s something that we are trying to instill from the top down in NWA.”
Stevens said that it doesn’t matter if it’s a dark match or a TV match, you should be smart in the ring and make whatever you do the best it can be.
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